Modern warfare has been evolving in the direction of the use of precision-guided weapons to kill targets such as buildings and storage facilities used by terrorists in the midst of areas occupied by civilian communities. This places a premium on weapons that minimize collateral damage while efficiently destroying the occupants and/or contents of these structures. These requirements call for the development of a new class of weapon.
A conventional delivery system used to effect sequential air bursts of sub-munitions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,931 to Bessey, et al. One of the sub-munitions disclosed by Bessey, et al. is a rocket-type munition consisting of a conventional starter powder to be ignited by a powder column, a conventional propellant composition and a nozzle to emit a hot gas stream which can propel the sub-munition. The payload disclosed by Bessey, et al. can be either an explosive or an incendiary composition. However, there is no disclosure in Bessey, et al. of an incendiary composition which can penetrate a structure and once inside can release sufficient heat to thermalize the environment to a high enough temperature to neutralize chemical and biological agents inside the target structure.
Of high interest is that the trends in recent world events have made it clear that armed forces will increasingly face hostile forces, such as terrorist groups, armed with nuclear, biological and/or chemical (NBC) weapons. These terrorist groups operate from a variety of types of facilities, from light skinned metal buildings to hardened, underground structures, to support these weapons. These facilities are used for research and development, manufacturing, production, and storage of these weapons.
Advanced munitions are being developed to penetrate and defeat this range of facility targets. However, novel payloads for these munitions are also required to confidently defeat these facilities without releasing and dispersing the very biological and chemical weapons sought to be destroyed. At present, no conventional munitions achieve such object.
In particular, payloads of incendiary munitions capable of raising internal facility room temperatures uniformly to well over 1,000° F. in a non-explosive manner for an extended period of time are needed to neutralize biological and chemical weapons contained in munitions and other storage vessels, and to minimize collateral effects. A number of approaches have been taken to solve this problem, including the use of high explosive munitions containing white phosphorous, conventional rockets released inside a target structure, thermobaric weapons, shells, and other explosives. However, it is ideal that the incendiary or other weapon used in these missions does not explode, and force these dangerous materials into the surrounding environment.
Another problem is that these conventional approaches fail to raise the temperature of the target volume to a high temperature for an extended period of time. In order to neutralize and/or destroy such chemical and biological weapons, the target volume temperature must be raised to a high temperature for an extended period of time. Instead, conventional approaches employ high explosives with phosphorous, which generally raise the temperature of the target volume to high temperatures, but for only a fraction of a second and, in the process, cause an undesirable overpressure, which may destroy the vessels containing the materials and the structure resulting in the spread harmful materials into collateral regions, or into the atmosphere in an unintended and undesirable way.
For example, phosphorous-based munitions used for such applications generally blow the roof off of the target structure, allowing the heat and gas to escape. Moreover, these conventional approaches also fail to transfer the necessary high heat uniformly through multi-rooms, halls, and large target volumes containing the materials to be destroyed.
Another example of a conventional incendiary munition is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,343 to King which combines the effects of a jetting incendiary with a slow burning incendiary. The main purpose of the incendiary bomblet of King is to start fires within a target structure. The purpose of the jetting incendiary in King is to ensure that the burning incendiary is adjacent to a flammable item which can catch fire. The jet of hot gases from the bomblet are used to propel the munition to a position adjacent to a flammable item. Since the purpose of the incendiary munition of King is to ignite items in a target structure, it would be necessary that an air/oxygen supply be available in the target structure because there is no disclosure in King of providing an oxygen source for combustion.
One of the problems with this conventional type of incendiary munition is that it does not burn for a sufficient time to raise the overall temperature in a target room to temperatures sufficient to neutralize chemical and biological agents. One possible reason for the short burn time is that oxygen in a target room is quickly consumed once an incendiary mixture is ignited. Another possible reason is that the incendiary munition of King does not contain an oxidizer for the fuel which would ensure that the fuel would continue to burn until all of the fuel is consumed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition capable of liberating sufficient heat to elevate temperatures inside of a structure to over 1,000° F. for an extended period of time, such as in four or five minutes or more, without creating any substantial overpressure, or having an explosive effect on the target structure.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a highly effective incendiary munition for neutralizing chemical and/or biological agents inside target structures, without forcing these dangerous substances to vent into the surrounding environment.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition which can raise internal facility room temperatures to well over 1,000° F. in a non-explosive manner and continue to liberate heat after oxygen in a target structure is exhausted, so as to neutralize biological and chemical weapons therein with a minimum of collateral damage.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition which contains self-propelled sub-munitions capable of causing the ignited sub-munition to move around the room to more uniformly distribute hot gases generated by the incendiary material contained within the submunition throughout the target structure being attacked.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition capable of rapidly moving a thermal source through a maximum amount of the target volume, so as to rapidly distribute liberated heat by stirring the gases in the target volume to more equally heat the entire volume of the target, thus destroying the internal contents of the target volume thermally, without violent explosion or detonation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition which contains both a fuel and an oxidizer which, therefore, has a combined ability to destroy targets by kinetic impact and extreme temperatures, without a violent explosion or detonation, and which can burn even in the absence of air/oxygen.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an incendiary munition utilizing an obduration fluid to withstand extremely high acceleration forces (g forces) on impact and penetration of hardened structures and earth.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an incendiary submunition capable of frictionless movement and self-rotation through the use of energetic material and geometry, without the need for the utilization of other mechanical or electrical mechanisms.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an incendiary submunition in which thrust from the submunition itself can be programmed or timed to prevent the submunition from being trapped in corners within the target volume during use, while also moving and accelerating the submunition randomly within the target volume during application.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a disc-shaped incendiary submunition in which one or more barrels embedded in the incendiary material contains a powder charge and projectile(s) which can be fired radially outwardly to damage any stored containers of chemical/biological materials.